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Thursday, November 14, 2013

House Republicans to try to impeach U.S. Attorney General Holder

House Republicans to try to impeach U.S. Attorney General Holder

16 hours ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives
plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Attorney General Eric
Holder on Thursday, in the hopes of removing a cabinet member they say
has lied to Congress as well as failed to uphold federal law.

"This was not a decision that I made lightly.
Since the House voted in 2012 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in
contempt, the pattern of disregard for the rule of law and refusal to be
forthright has only continued," Texas Representative Pete Olson, who
drafted the articles, said in a statement provided to Reuters on
Wednesday.
"The American people deserve answers and
accountability. If the attorney general refuses to provide answers, then
Congress must take action."
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the possibility of an impeachment move.
The resolution could pass the Republican-dominated House but would
likely sputter in the Democratic-dominated Senate, which would have to
hold a trial to remove Holder, who has been attorney general since 2009,
from office.
Still, an impeachment drive would further fuel the
tensions that exist between the federal government's top law enforcement
officer and conservative lawmakers. According to the media firm CQ Roll
Call, 10 other Republicans would co-sponsor the articles of
impeachment, five of whom are from Texas.
According to an
outline, the first article is based on "Operation Fast and Furious" a
bungled attempt to build cases against major gun traffickers who
supplied firearms to Mexican drug cartels, while electing not to
immediately prosecute low-level traffickers even as they bought 2,000
potentially illegal guns.
The operation came to light after two
of those firearms were found in Arizona at the scene of the fatal
shooting of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
After Holder
refused to give a congressional committee subpoenaed documents about the
Justice Department's involvement in "Fast and Furious" he was found in
contempt of Congress. The House oversight committee has also sued for
the documents.
The other impeachment articles rest on issues that
have raised conservatives' ire in recent years, including Holder's
decisions not to enforce laws on same-sex marriage, on prison sentences
for certain drug crimes and not to prosecute an official in the Internal
Revenue Service for targeting conservative political activists.
They also say Holder lied to Congress about a Justice Department investigation into Fox News correspondent James Rosen.
(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Paul Simao)